From cruel women to angelic mothers. (Grand)motherhood in Italian folktales.

In the folktales as have been recorded by the Grimm brothers and other 19th century folklorists, mothers are ‘bad’ only insofar as they are stepmothers. This is in notable contrast with the original folktales that were orally transmitted by (in most cases) female narrators. This contribution will offer some observations about this transition.